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Period 3
AP Bio
Chapter 9 Notes (9.1-9.5)
Catabolic metabolic pathways release the energy stored in complex organic molecules.
One type of catabolic process, fermentation, leads to the partial degradation of sugars in
respiration.
Cellular respiration is similar in broad principle to the combustion of gasoline in an
The catabolism of glucose is exergonic with a ? G of ?686 kcal per mole of glucose.
Some of this energy is used to produce ATP, which can perform cellular work.
Redox reactions release energy when electrons move closer to electronegative atoms.
Catabolic pathways transfer the electrons stored in food molecules, releasing energy that
The formation of table salt from sodium and chloride is a redox reaction.
Here sodium is oxidized and chlorine is reduced (its charge drops from 0 to ?1).
Redox reactions also occur when the transfer of electrons is not complete but involves a
The more electronegative the atom, the more energy is required to take an electron away
from it.
An electron loses potential energy when it shifts from a less electronegative atom toward
a more electronegative one.
A redox reaction that relocates electrons closer to oxygen, such as the burning of
methane, releases chemical energy that can do work.
The fall of electrons during respiration is stepwise, via NAD+ and an electron transport
chain.
Cellular respiration does not oxidize glucose in a single step that transfers all the
specific enzyme.
At key steps, electrons are stripped from the glucose.
hydrogen atom.
The hydrogen atoms are not transferred directly to oxygen but are passed first to a
Dehydrogenase enzymes strip two hydrogen atoms from the fuel (e.g., glucose),
oxidizing it.
By receiving two electrons and only one proton, NAD+ has its charge neutralized when it
is reduced to NADH.
NAD+ functions as the oxidizing agent in many of the redox steps during the
catabolism of glucose.
The electrons carried by NADH have lost very little of their potential energy in this
process.
Each NADH molecule formed during respiration represents stored energy. This energy is
Unlike the explosive release of heat energy that occurs when H2 and O2 are
combined (with a spark for activation energy), cellular respiration uses an electron transport
chain to break the fall of electrons to O2 into several steps.
The electron transport chain consists of several molecules (primarily proteins) built into
the inner membrane of a mitochondrion.
Electrons released from food are shuttled by NADH to the top higher-energy end of the
chain.
At the bottom lower-energy end, oxygen captures the electrons along with H+ to form
water.
Electron transfer from NADH to oxygen is an exergonic reaction with a free energy
carbon dioxide.
Several steps in glycolysis and the citric acid cycle are redox reactions in which
In the electron transport chain, the electrons move from molecule to molecule until they
the mitochondrion into a form that can be used to synthesize ATP via oxidative phosphorylation.
The inner membrane of the mitochondrion is the site of electron transport and
respiration.
Some ATP is also formed directly during glycolysis and the citric acid cycle by substrate-
level phosphorylation.
Here an enzyme transfers a phosphate group from an organic substrate to ADP,
forming ATP.
For each molecule of glucose degraded to carbon dioxide and water by respiration, the
These smaller sugars are oxidized and rearranged to form two molecules of pyruvate, the
ionized form of pyruvic acid.
Each of the ten steps in glycolysis is catalyzed by a specific enzyme.
These steps can be divided into two phases: an energy investment phase and an energy
payoff phase.
In the energy investment phase, the cell invests ATP to provide activation energy by
phosphorylating glucose.
This requires 2 ATP per glucose.
molecules
More than three-quarters of the original energy in glucose is still present in the two
molecules of pyruvate.
If oxygen is present, pyruvate enters the mitochondrion where enzymes of the citric acid
1.
2.
3.
Acetate combines with coenzyme A to form the very reactive molecule acetyl
CoA.
Acetyl CoA is now ready to feed its acetyl group into the citric acid cycle for further
oxidation.
The citric acid cycle is also called the Krebs cycle in honor of Hans Krebs, who was
1.
The citric acid cycle has eight steps, each catalyzed by a specific enzyme.
2.
The acetyl group of acetyl CoA joins the cycle by combining with the compound
oxaloacetate, forming citrate.
3.
The next seven steps decompose the citrate back to oxaloacetate. It is the
regeneration of oxaloacetate that makes this process a cycle.
4.
Three CO2 molecules are released, including the one released during the
1.
2.
The GTP is then used to synthesize an ATP, the only ATP generated directly by the
The reduced coenzymes NADH and FADH2 then transfer high-energy electrons
substrate-level phosphorylation.
Two are produced during glycolysis, and 2 are produced during the citric acid
cycle.
NADH and FADH2 account for the vast majority of the energy extracted from the food.
These reduced coenzymes link glycolysis and the citric acid cycle to oxidative
phosphorylation, which uses energy released by the electron transport chain to power ATP
synthesis.
The electron transport chain is a collection of molecules embedded in the cristae, the
folded inner membrane of the mitochondrion.
The folding of the cristae increases its surface area, providing space for thousands
During electron transport along the chain, electron carriers alternate between reduced and
chain, a flavoprotein.
The electrons continue along the chain that includes several cytochrome proteins and one
lipid carrier.
The prosthetic group of each cytochrome is a heme group with an iron atom that
electronegative.
Each oxygen atom also picks up a pair of hydrogen ions from the aqueous
Its function is to break the large free energy drop from food to oxygen into a series of
smaller steps that release energy in manageable amounts.
How does the mitochondrion couple electron transport and energy release to ATP
synthesis?
A protein complex, ATP synthase, in the cristae actually makes ATP from ADP and Pi.
ATP uses the energy of an existing proton gradient to power ATP synthesis.
The proton gradient develops between the intermembrane space and the matrix.
The proton gradient is produced by the movement of electrons along the electron
transport chain.
The chain is an energy converter that uses the exergonic flow of electrons to pump H+
A stator, anchored next to the rotor, which holds the knob stationary.
2. Protons flow down a narrow space between the stator and rotor, causing the rotor and its attached
rod to rotate.
The spinning rod causes conformational changes in the stationary knob, activating
three catalytic sites in the knob where ADP and inorganic phosphate combine to make ATP.
How does the inner mitochondrial membrane generate and maintain the H+
gradient that drives ATP synthesis in the ATP synthase protein complex?
Creating the H+ gradient is the function of the electron transport chain.
The ETC is an energy converter that uses the exergonic flow of electrons to pump
H+ across the membrane from the mitochondrial matrix to the intermembrane space.
The H+ has a tendency to diffuse down its gradient.
The ATP synthase molecules are the only place that H+ can diffuse back to the
matrix.
This coupling of the redox reactions of the electron transport chain to ATP
Certain members of the electron transport chain accept and release H+ along with
electrons.
At certain steps along the chain, electron transfers cause H+ to be taken up and
protons are accepted from the mitochondrial matrix and deposited in the intermembrane space.
The H+ gradient that results is the proton-motive force.
They can use this proton-motive force not only to generate ATP, but also to pump
nutrients and waste products across the membrane and to rotate their flagella.
Each NADH from the citric acid cycle and the conversion of pyruvate contributes enough
energy to the proton-motive force to generate a maximum of 3 ATP.
The NADH from glycolysis may also yield 3 ATP.
Each FADH2 from the citric acid cycle can be used to generate about 2 ATP.
There are three reasons that we cannot state an exact number of ATP molecules generated
generates 3 ATP. In others, the electrons are passed to FAD, which generates only 2 ATP.
The proton-motive force generated by the redox reactions of respiration may drive
other kinds of work, such as mitochondrial uptake of pyruvate from the cytosol.
If all the proton-motive force generated by the electron transport chain
were used to drive ATP synthesis, one glucose molecule could generate a maximum of 34 ATP by
oxidative phosphorylation plus 4 ATP (net) from substrate-level phosphorylation to give a total
yield of 3638 ATP (depending on the efficiency of the shuttle).
Concept 9.5 Fermentation enables some cells to produce ATP without the use of oxygen
Without electronegative oxygen to pull electrons down the transport chain, oxidative
phosphorylation ceases.
However, fermentation provides a mechanism by which some cells can oxidize organic
oxidizing agent.
Glycolysis is exergonic and produces 2 ATP (net).
If oxygen is present, additional ATP can be generated when NADH delivers its
electrons to the electron transport chain.
Glycolysis generates 2 ATP whether oxygen is present (aerobic) or not (anaerobic).
Under aerobic conditions, NADH transfers its electrons to the electron transfer
and recycle NAD+ by transferring electrons from NADH to pyruvate or derivatives of pyruvate.
In alcohol fermentation, pyruvate is converted to ethanol in two steps.
During lactic acid fermentation, pyruvate is reduced directly by NADH to form lactate
Human muscle cells switch from aerobic respiration to lactic acid fermentation to
by substrate-level phosphorylation.
Both use NAD+ as an oxidizing agent to accept electrons from food during
glycolysis.
The two processes differ in their mechanism for oxidizing NADH to NAD+.
regenerate NAD+.
In respiration, the electrons of NADH are ultimately passed to O2, generating
ATP by oxidative phosphorylation.
More ATP is generated from the oxidation of pyruvate in the citric acid cycle.
Without oxygen, the energy still stored in pyruvate is unavailable to the cell.
Under aerobic respiration, a molecule of glucose yields 38 ATP, but the same
fermentation or respiration.
At a cellular level, human muscle cells can behave as facultative anaerobes.
For facultative anaerobes, pyruvate is a fork in the metabolic road that leads to two
alternative routes.
Under aerobic conditions, pyruvate is converted to acetyl CoA and oxidation
The oldest bacterial fossils are more than 3.5 billion years old, appearing long before
glycolysis.
The fact that glycolysis is a ubiquitous metabolic pathway and occurs in the cytosol
without membrane-enclosed organelles suggests that glycolysis evolved early in the history of
life.